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Retail Reinvented

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RETAIL REINVENTED

That famous line, delivered by Bette Davis in the 1950 film All About Eve, describes all too well the current retail environment.

Let’s begin with the empowered consumer, who’s showing no signs of calming down. Armed with the power of social media, consumers today are a demanding lot: Not only do they want convenience, speed, and ultra-high levels of customer service, but they also want to know they are receiving the best possible price for the product. (And if you don’t comply, their 1,000-plus Facebook and Twitter followers are sure to read all about it.)

There are also the multiple paths to purchase: digital, mobile, and real-life channels — with every single point of contact being significant. The chal- lenge for retailers is to create a consistent and person-alized customer experience that crosses various screens and devices, as well as the brick-and-mortar store itself, all in the name of creating a frictionless shopping experience for the customer.

Adding to the mix is an onslaught of technology.

Just when retailers had gotten the hang of Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest — even Snapchat — along come wearables, virtual reality, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring?Of course, every retailer looking to remain viable embraces marketing technology advancements, but challenges persist. For starters: avoiding the mind-set that your brand needs to have a presence on every existing channel and that it’s imperative to choose wisely by being sure the channel(s) used makes sense for your brand and for your product.

“Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean that it is the right product for your brand,” notes Nancy Lim, director of marketing at PureCars.

Marketers need to embrace change and drive toward what their customers are looking for, adds Lim. “The retailer used to determine how to promote the brand. Now the consumer holds all the power. Where the consumer is is where the brand needs to be.”

3 6 9 12 14

“ Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night”

TABLE OF CONTENTSMarketing Technology: Trending in Retail

A Marketer’s Guide to the Windfalls and Pitfalls of the Internet of Things

Omnichannel Marketing: The Perfect Fit for Indochino

Location, Location, (Understanding) Location

Harman Unwraps Retargeting for the Holidays

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Some might argue even more so. As we move at warp speed into the modern era of hyper- personalization, the intersec-tion of data and technology

is making it possible to understand customer preferences across the buy-ing journey and to offer personalized, relevant experiences tailored to the individual, including offerings and product selection — even pricing.

Helping to drive the trend toward hyper-personalization are the consum-er’s increasing engagement with mo-bile, the rise of the omnichannel mar-keting strategy (animated by the ability to engage with customers at any point in the buying journey), and the ever- increasing data pool — with wearables, augmented reality, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things entering into the fray — allowing brands to load up on customer insights.

■ Mobile takes over the retail plantJust a couple of years ago the majority of retail transactions began on mobile and then were completed on desktop, notes PureCars’ Nancy Lim. “This year transactions are completely on mobile, from start to finish,” she says.

The rise in consumer mobile usage has forced retailers to ramp up their mobile strategies. They increasingly respect the fact that a lot of commerce originates on mobile — with either a tablet or a smartphone, says Bob Barr, MD of Accenture Interactive.

However, he notes, “Retailers are still trying to get their head around wheth-er they have the right functionality.”

Consumers use their mobile devices to find local stores, shop, and benefit from targeted offers. They also use mobile to tap into social media, where they are highly likely to share their brand expe riences.

Savvy retailers, meanwhile, are using mobile devices to target consumers, employing beacons and geo-location technology to serve up ads and offers when consumers are either in the store or near a brick-and-mortar location.

■ New habits and expectationsThe shift to a mobile-first world is also changing purchase habits and expec-tations, notes Ivy Shtereva, director of marketing at Yes Lifecycle Marketing.

Consumers have come to expect super-easy checkout options, for ex-ample. “Having an easy-to-navigate log-in process, as well as a one-click checkout option, lowers the barrier to purchase completion,” says Shtereva. Buy buttons, like Amazon’s Dash, provide mobile shoppers with easier functionality than before.

Mobile and alternative payment op-tions, such as mobile wallet apps, are also poised to increase this year, points out Erin Jordan, account director at Walker Sands.

“Retailers should adopt platforms like Visa Checkout and PayPal and newer payment apps like Venmo before their competitors do,” adds Shtereva. “Venmo’s social component in partic-ular can greatly increase brand reach, grow a retailer’s customer base, and encourage digital word of mouth.”

While social media has contributed

Marketing Technology: Trending in RetailIn the retail arena, marketing technology is becoming as important to a brand’s ability to sell products as are the products themselves. By Joann Whitcher

Source: Act-On Software

Omnichannel ImperativeForrester predicts that cross-channel retail sales will reach $1.8 trillion in the U.S. by 2017

Snapchat is the now most popular social network for teens, per a Piper Jaffray report. Insta gram is second; Twitter and Facebook follow

According to the Pew Research Center, Snapchat had about

100 million active daily users in mid-2015

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to the growth of smartphone use, over the past two years messaging apps have started to outpace social networks when it comes to where customers spend their time. Mobile users are be-coming desensitized to apps — there are just too many, Barr says.

Messaging apps are also making experiences more relatable, says Lim. Case in point: Facebook’s Businesses on Messenger, introduced in March 2015, lets companies talk directly to consumers and vice versa. So if a cus-tomer ordered something from your website, you can send them a mes-sage about the status of the order, for example. “Both online and brick-and- mortar retailers can connect with someone on that channel with relevant information, not just noise,” says Lim.

■ Messaging initiativesRetailers are also innovating their mar-keting strategy with short messaging service initiatives. “Consumers are open to notifications and different connections with a brand if they see they are getting value,” says Jordan. “But messaging, like other forms of communications, has to be based on common sense and used where and when retailers can provide value, which will be different for different brands or audiences.”

Domino’s Pizza, for one, uses SMS to make the ordering process as easy and convenient as possible for its mo-bile customers. “SMS is an instant and ele gant way for retailers to better en-gage with their audience, as it allows

them to manage conversations on the go,” says Shtereva.

“By using SMS, consumers can set up order and shipping confirmations and receive incentives for visiting a retail location,” she adds. “As mobile continues to dominate e- commerce, retailers can leverage SMS to innovate their purchase process.”

■ The omnichannel imperativeU.S. adults use an average of 2.9 de-vices for their computer and internet needs, an average of 1.9 devices for online browsing, and 1.8 devices for making the final purchase, details a survey by Bronto Commerce Market-ing Automation. Shoppers expect a consistent experience regardless of which device they are using at a par-ticular moment and no matter whether they are merely browsing or intent on making a purchase.

As retailers and marketers look to make targeting more personalized and precise by going after specific con-sumers or addressing different stages of the purchase process, a convenient and compelling omnichannel experi-ence is what will entice consumers to engage with these technologies. Con-sumers want to access the same in-formation they can get online (for ex-ample, inventory and price matching) while they’re in store.

“Multichannel has jumped the shark,” explains Patrick Tripp, Red-Point’s VP of product strategy. “It’s no longer effective to power up vari-ous channel-based communications

efforts if they are not all coordinated and tied to your overall commerce strategy. Given that the bulk of retail spend is still happening in the store,” Tripp continues, “digital and tradi-tional channels must be context-aware and work toward a common goal of data-driven customer engagement.”

That today’s consumers — especial-ly young ones — hop on and off chan-nels ups the challenge for marketers and retailers. A current favorite among millennials is Snapchat.

“What Snapchat has done is a testa-ment to why marketers have to follow the consumer,” says PureCars’ Lim.

“Snapchat has capitalized on the way millennials and that demograph-ic consume media — short bursts of video and emojis,” she says.

“And Snapchat taps into a natural behavior that mobile phone users have already adopted and it capitalizes on it. Whenever Snapchat launches a new product, it shows it really does listen to clients.”

Snapchat also taps into video’s draw: A survey by Animoto reveals that 73% of consumers are likelier to make a purchase after watching a branded video that explains the product or ser-vice than if they do not see the video.

And we haven’t even seen the ex-tent to which the latest technologies — wearables, virtual reality, augment-ed reality — will impact the market-ing landscape. The wearables market, for example, is expected to grow from $15 billion in sales in 2015 to $25 bil-lion in 2019.

— Nancy Lim, PureCars

Snapchat taps into a natural behavior that mobile phone users have already adopted and it capitalizes on it. Whenever Snapchat launches a new product, it shows it really does listen to clients

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However, it’s imperative not to overlook that a successful omnichan-nel program isn’t about the channel or device — it’s about the customer. “The real question is, ‘Do you know me across channels if I start in one channel and end up in another?’” notes Accenture’s Barr. “Research proves that if customers engage with a brand in more than one channel, they will spend more [money]. It takes a really good CRM to understand and appreciate what you are doing across those channels.”

■ Engaging the (potential) customerFurther complicating the conversion process is that a majority of people visiting an e-commerce site aren’t going there to make a purchase — they’re going there simply to research. Brands need to focus on engaging these cus-tomers across the buying journey, says Joakim Holmquist, director of digital marketing for EPiServer, a WCM plat-form. “When we see conversion rates for e-commerce hovering at about 2%, it means that 98% didn’t complete that conversion.”

It’s important that brands nurture the other activities customers engage in when visiting the brand’s site. “Even if consumers didn’t decide to buy at that point in their journey, you still need to give them a great experience,” says Holmquist. One way to do that is to be sure there is relevant content on your site, such as white papers that provide direction on your product’s application and best use.

Content and context are also keys to effective personalization, says Red-Point’s Tripp. “Content without con-text is like a Tesla without a battery — beautiful and modern in essence, but there’s no journey for it encoun-ter. Data is the driving force behind context. You need to empower mar-keters with all of the data that might exist about a consumer, whether it’s structured or unstructured, online or offline, anonymous or authenticated.”

■ The ever-expanding data poolMobile, social media, and online shop-ping offer fountains of data insights for brands, but the data pool is now poised to explode, as wearable tech-nology, virtual reality, augmented real-ity, and the Internet of Things make their way poolside.

Wearables are a virtual gold mine of data insights, giving retailers and their marketing and service teams the abili-ty to be in touch with their customers during every stage, from browsing to purchase. It’s all about being connect-ed, and data from wearables allows re-tailers to gather data on such activities as purchases made, the number of vis-its to a store or site, and which stores the customer is visiting.

“Wearables essentially become an-other component of an omnichannel strategy, one that either leverages the data created by the device or uses the device itself as a connection point to deliver a contextual message,” com-ments Epsilon’s chief digital officer, Tom Edwards, in “Wearables: The

Future of Omnichannel,” a May 2016 article published by DMN.

The Internet of Things — in the form of beacons, for example — of-fers retailers access to information about store traffic as well as the abil-ity to recognize customers when they visit stores through past browsing and purchasing behaviors. (Please see the following chapter in this eBook, A Marketer’s Guide to the Windfalls and Pitfalls of the Internet of Things, by Perry Simpson, for more on this sub-ject.) Insights like these can be used to deliver tailored offers to the customer’s smartphone or wearable.

Rebecca Minkoff ’s flagship SoHo store, in New York City, constitutes a perfect example of how the Internet of Things can act as a data magnet. The store employs such innovations as magic mirrors, RFID technology, interactive displays, and beacons. The interactive displays give customers the opportunity to order a free cocktail or coffee while they shop; the only cave-at is that to place an order, a customer must enter a phone number.

“The data tied to wearable devices,” Edwards continues, “will be leveraged to build predictive models that will ulti mately be part of a larger inter-connected ecosystem that will be com-prised of Internet of Things hardware and software, emotive robotics, and mixed reality — such as virtual reality and augmented reality — in order to create immersive and highly contextu-al solutions for the brand marketers of the future.” n

— Patrick Tripp, RedPoint

Multichannel has jumped the shark. It’s no longer effective to power up various channel-based communications efforts if they are not all coordinated and tied to your overall commerce strategy

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■ I know what the Internet of Things is. Everyone does.Everyone? Surely not everyone, though there’s truth to the notion that the IoT is a fairly well-known concept at this point. Whether it is equally well under-stood is up for debate.

At its core, the Internet of Things is the process and practice of integrating the web and data into the development of hardware and home appliances. IoT often moves in lockstep with wearable technology. Each represents the next phase of the evolution of the internet and of connectivity in general.

In practice, however, the “I” in IoT works more as an intranet than the more nebulous internet. At least it should. More on that in a moment.

■ Cool, but at the end of the day, it’s a big deal. As a marketer, I should pay attention.Absolutely. There is good reason that

the IoT has gotten popular. IoT tech-nology has maintained prominence at all major technology conferences for years now, including the Consumer Electronics Show. IoT’s popular focus for tech startups will likely continue to gain traction with general consum-ers as prices drop and products pro-liferate. Marketers shouldn’t ignore trends that are prolific, especially one intrinsically steeped in customer data.

■ I feel as if there’s more to this than popularity. What’s the IoT’s real allure for marketers?In a word: data. Practical use of partic-ular products aside, the IoT is all about data aggregation. Ideally, consumer tech like the popular smart thermom-eter Nest uses a collocation of data — location, weather, you name it — to dynamically update and tailor its func-tion, which in the case of Nest means adjusting house temperature.

Imagine the possibilities access to data from a person’s refrigerator or oven could provide. It’s easy to under-stand marketers’ excitement for the prospect of such new and diverse data. The practical reality concerning whether marketers will realistically be able to take action on this data is still a way off, however.

■ What? How? I thought the IoT was everywhere.That’s part of the problem. Everyone — from brands to consumers to de-velopers to distributors to marketers — is jumping into the IoT. The mar-keting applications of IoT technology are constrained by the same factor that often inhibits users’ experiences with these products, and it’s a familiar ad-versary for technology-focused mar-keters: fragmentation.

There are dozens of companies cre-ating IoT products, many of which are

A Marketer’s Guide to the Windfalls and Pitfalls of the Internet of Things The Internet of Things is well known, but not well understood. Here’s everything marketers need to know before diving into this latest tech trend. By Perry Simpson

Fragmentation arising from varied sources of smarthome products and the need to preserve private information are roadblocks to full IoT implementation

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using proprietary software that was not designed to play well with external software. Marketers will recall the ear-ly days of CRM, and how clunky the integration with third-party marketing technology often was. IoT software faces a similar challenge today.

This fragmentation is a major road-block to the ideal IoT setup — where devices in a home share information and data in a protected, or closed, ecosystem that continually learns and adjusts to the user’s preferences — an intranet, in so many words. But it’s difficult to establish a secure intranet environment for connected devices today because many of the companies in the IoT game aren’t exactly known for their software prowess. And even if they were, their product ecosys-tems pale in comparison with those of Apple’s and Google’s and are far less secure, as well.

■ What does device security have to do with me as a marketer?Considering that data is a marketer’s primary incentive to delve into the IoT, the security of that data should be of utmost importance to marketers.

Marketers stand to gain unparal-leled and unprecedented access to consumers in the place where con-sumers’ should feel the most secure: their home. While the bigger players in the IoT space — the Apples, Googles, and Oracles of the world — have more experience in securing networks and fostering harmonious systems inte-gration, newcomers in the IoT world

remain untested at best or outright unsafe due to the dearth of encryption in the IoT market. This leaves the IoT ripe for hacking.

■ The IoT sounds like a liability It certainly can be, but not necessari-ly any more so than social media, and certainly not more than any other big data venture. Again, IoT is all about data. The challenges marketers face

there aren’t so different from those they face in any other digital market-ing effort that incorporates plenty of customer data.

The crucial difference here is that marketers must take a deep dive into the annals of digital hardware tech-nology in order to better understand where the IoT ship is sailing. Rest as-sured, it’s a boat that savvy marketers will want to ship on. n

At its core, the Internet of Things is the process and practice of integrating the web and data into the development of hardware and home appliances

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Omnichannel marketing may be in vogue, but not every brand can pull it off. Mar-keters sometimes fail to stitch the retail and digital

domains together — resulting in two clashing customer experiences rather than one seamless ensemble.

Made-to-measure menswear brand Indochino managed to fasten the on- and offline worlds together by imple-menting a new platform and letting data design the customer experience.

■ Weaving two worlds togetherFounded in 2007, Indochino began as an online-only brand. In 2011, it made its first foray into retail with the launch of Traveling Tailor — an initiative for which it hosted pop-up shops in certain markets and asked customers to come in for fittings and fabric viewings.

“It turned out to be a really good brand-awareness exercise,” says Pilar Catala, director of omnichannel digital experience. “However, we also found out that it was really, really profitable.”

Indochino then began opening show-rooms two years ago. Catala wanted to be sure that the in-store and online customer experiences were consistent, so she implemented Qubit’s Visitor Cloud — a central hub that connects data from various touchpoints to pro-vide a unified view of the customer.

By using the platform, Indochino can create seamless experiences be-tween its offline and online channels. Take its appointment-booking pro-cess, for instance. Catala wanted to use Indo chino’s digital channels to drive in-store fitting appointments in certain markets. So she started leveraging cus-tomers’ geolocation data to show them the nearest showroom.

■ Designing with data“When you come to our website and you want to book an appointment, the showroom that’s closest to you is the one that appears first,” she explains.

The online booking process also gives Indochino the chance to collect more data on its customers and drive deeper personalization in both the dig-ital and offline realms. When a custom-er books an appointment, Indo chino asks them to select the type of appoint-ment they would like to have, from a 30- minute wedding consultation to a 60-minute time slot for someone wanting their measurements taken.

The brand also collects the custom-er’s name, email address, phone num-ber, and how they heard about the brand. All this data goes into the Vis-itor Cloud platform. Customers can also opt in to Indochino’s email pro-gram at this time.

Once customers enter the store for their appointment, an associate can re-view this information via a tablet app. Not only does this let the associate under stand immediately what the cli-ent is looking for, but it also gives him the opportunity to upsell the customer or collect additional qualitative data — are customers comfortable with how they are being measured or are they enjoying the experience?

“You collect all of this data in a con-versational manner,” she notes. “But at the same time, you’ve got this little app that’s driving the conversation.”

This combination of qualitative and quantitative data has allowed Indo-chino to uncover insights about its

Omnichannel Marketing: The Perfect Fit for IndochinoHow one online-only brand came to trust its customers when redefining its presence to include brick-and-mortar locations. By Elyse Dupré

Qubit’s Visitor Cloud allows Indochino to offer its customers a unified online and store experience

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customers and business model. For example, when Indochino opened its brick-and-mortar store in Toronto, it started by targeting local professionals. However, through in-store conversa-tions, the brand’s associates discovered that many of these shoppers actually lived in neighboring Mississauga and commuted to Toronto. So Indochino opened up a store inside a high-end Mississauga mall to reach them.

But because Indochino had never opened a store in a mall — only stand-alone boutiques — it had to adjust its business model. Instead of forcing cus-tomers to book an appointment online and then come to the mall, Indochino decided to appeal to window-shoppers and allow them to have their measure-ments taken without an appointment.

“It has really helped us find cool areas to expand,” Catala says, “and really dive in and evolve our showroom model or approach to give customers the experience they want.”

■ Tailoring the experienceIndochino also serves up tailored expe-riences based on where customers are in their buying cycle.

For example, when a customer visits a product page on Indochino’s web-site, he will have the opportunity to click a “customize now” button and enter what Catala calls the “customi-zation funnel.” Once in this funnel, the customer will have the opportunity to personalize the product to his liking. So if a customer opts to customize a suit, for instance, he will have the op-

portunity to pick out everything from the lapel and lining to the number of buttons and pant pleats.

Another example of personalization based on a customer’s buying cycle is Indochino’s wedding-planning experi-ence. If a customer visits the wedding section on Indochino’s website, they will have the opportunity to start plan-ning the groom’s and groomsmen’s attire. Indochino will ask the customer for the wedding date and then guide them through the process of picking out the suit style, customizing it, and listing the groom’s and groomsmen’s contact information. Catala says Indo-chino even has a “grooms’ lounge” within its showrooms where wedding parties can go to get fitted and enjoy some foosball and beer.

“It’s all about proper customization and pertinent content on that site for you as a consumer,” she notes.

■ Producing chic resultsSince working with Qubit, Indochino has seen a 4.2% increase in revenue per customer, as well as a 3.7% increase in conversions. Last month Indo chino reported a 67% year-to-date growth in sales. In fact, Catala says that Qubit has helped Indochino drive $1 million in incremental revenue.

While she admits that she was con-cerned that Indochino’s brick-and-mortar stores would cannibalize the brand’s online business, Catala now realizes that the two channels need to work together to benefit the business as a whole. And when it comes to cre-ating a seamless omnichannel experi-ence, she now knows that the customer knows best.

“The biggest lesson is that it’s not up to us to dictate the customer experi-ence,” she says. “The customer will tell us how he wants to deal with us.” n

— Pilar Catala, Indochino

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T here are three things you need to know about loca-tion marketing. First, mar-keters know where people are. At least they do if

they’re in some relatively non-remote part of North America: Location data is plentiful. Second, location market-ing is inextricably linked to the Inter-net of Things. Location marketing is part and parcel of an ongoing merger between the “real” and digital worlds. Third, the “real-world” aspect of loca-tion marketing brings some interested and unexpected players off the bench.

■ What does “where” mean?Data mavens have developed various definitions of location over the history of location marketing. Here are a few with which you should be familiar:

◆ Tiling. Remember the squares defined by latitude and longitude on old-fashioned Mercator maps? Tiling is the technique of layering a grid over a territory of interest and defining location by grid squares.

◆ Geo-fencing. A useful step beyond tiling, it defines location in relation to a place of interest. Take a retail out- let; draw a perimeter around it (100 yards, a mile), then define location as being within that perimeter.

◆ Spatial. A spatial approach looks less at current location, more about where someone has just been and (predic-tively) where he or she is going. Think of it as tracing vectors of intent.

■ Big data is watching youThe data that can track individuals within one or another of those location templates has, for the most part, obvi-ous sources. If you’re carrying a mo-bile device — and who isn’t? — GPS tracking can find you. Enabling loca-tion permissions can permit the device to be tracked by individual apps. In an-other development, businesses are in-creasingly investing in mobile beacons that can deliver precisely relevant mes-saging to proximate mobile devices.

Some vendors offer location data based on social media activity. The geo-tagging often embedded in photos and other content uploaded to social networks, combined with keyword and hashtag searches, permits tracking so-cial activity within a tile or radius, or along a vector, of interest.

What’s more, the Internet of Things, which is steadily seeding the world around us with sensors, is designed to facilitate data exchange between devic-es and appliances as we move around our households, ride in our vehicles, and roam generally across the physi-cal landscape. Marketers figured out online tracking a long time ago. The distinction between online and offline activity is rapidly vanishing.

■ Let’s sell somethingLocation tracking, then, is an advanced and sophisticated science. But once we know where people are, how do we sell them stuff ? Frankly, location mar-keting today remains experimental. Beyond the banal “they are near our store, let’s send a discount coupon to

Location, Location, (Understanding) Location In the retail arena, marketing technology is becoming as important to a brand’s ability to sell products as products are themselves. By Kim Davis

Mobile context and location-based services market will reach $43.3 billion in revenue by 2019, rising from an estimated $12.2 billion in 2014

Source: Juniper Research

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their phone,” there are approaches that are more creative, some of which may turn out to be fruitful.

◆ Turn crowds into audiences. At a fundamental level, location data can be combined with demo-graphic, behavioral, and CRM data to refine custom audiences for campaigns.

◆ Responsive billboards and ad dis-plays. Imagine knowing, whether at the segment or indi vidual level, who is looking at your real-world advertising, as well as where they’ve been, where they’re heading, and what their recent browsing and social behaviors have been: Cloud-based inventory permits precise targeting of ads in a physical — but digitally con nected — environment. And what about if the ad display can interact with the passerby’s mobile device?

◆ Crafting the journey. Knowing to whom you’re marketing, their location, the time of day, the weather, and other contex- tual features allows you to deliver content geared to utility, mood, and predicted intent. The message you deliver to someone in a car during a morn- ing or evening rush hour might be quite different — in tone as well as content — to one deliv- ered to someone taking a run, eating lunch, or relaxing at home.

■ Leave me aloneIt’s necessary to say a word about pri-vacy. Much location tracking takes place on the basis of permission, even if those are sometimes unwittingly giv-en. What’s more, better data vendors, even though they’re virtually tailing you, don’t need to know who you are. Claudia Perlich, chief scientist at ad tech company Dstillery, notes: “I don’t know who you are, and I don’t want to know. We can anonymize incom-ing data, and yet still be quite precise about who is in the market.”

Think of prospects not as individu-als, but as individual patterns of activity.

■ Location is a broad playing fieldBecause location marketing is essen-tially about reaching people who have stepped away from their deskbound digital experience and are moving through the physical landscape, real estate is suddenly a valuable marketing resource. Outfront Media is one exam-ple of an old-school billboard business (it’s the former CBS Outdoor) that is building a digital vision around a port-folio of outdoor real estate assets. We can expect that other vendors with real estate investments will realize they now own valuable components of the digi-tal network.

When all is said and done, location marketing is part of a much more general effort to access the complete customer journey, no matter where it occurs. As the song “Every Breath You Take,” by The Police, goes, “Every step you take, I’ll be watching you ...” n

— Claudia Perlich, Dstillery

I don’t know who you are, and I don’t want to know. We can anonymize incoming data and yet still be quite precise about who is in the market

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T he best gift marketers can give customers is value. De- livering content in a con-textual atmosphere counts as one way they can tie

value up in a relevant bow. Harman International Industries — a connect-ed products provider for automakers, businesses, and consumers — proved this when it paired sequential messag-ing with digital and social retargeting for a recent holiday campaign.

■ Setting the stageJBL is a 70-year-old Harman-owned consumer electronic goods brand. And until recently, its marketing depart-

ment hadn’t caught up with the times. Dave Spinato, global director of digital and social media at Harman, admits that marketing wasn’t a top priority for the parent company until 2013, when it hired Ralph Santana to serve as CMO and grow the marketing team.

“The company has traditionally been based on sales guys and engi-neers,” Spinato explains. “It’s not that there was never any marketing within the organization. It just had some ups and downs.”

Harman’s marketers had a “laundry list” of goals they wanted to achieve, including increasing brand awareness, consumer product recognition, pur-

chase, and engagement. As Spinato puts it, “We want to do it all.”

To help achieve these goals, Har-man’s marketers started working with full-service media agency BPN last October and brought on media buy-ing solution provider Adaptly a month later. Because nearly 70% of direct on-line sales for Harman’s lifestyle con-sumer products occur during the holi-day season (and JBL leads these sales), the company’s marketers decided to launch a campaign for JBL the ensu-ing November.

Knowing that they had a tight time-frame to strategize and execute a hol-iday campaign, Harman’s marketers decided to rely on what they had avail-able — an archive of content full of videos, product images, and use cases. Sean O’Neal, president of Adaptly, says the team chose to use this content to tell the JBL story and send sequen-tial messages that would guide cus-tomers down the path to purchase.

■ Producing the campaignHarman’s marketers took its existing content and produced video ads that were distributed across Facebook, In-stagram, and Twitter. These video ads ranged from product videos to spon-sorship clips and complemented the brand’s TV spots.

After Harman’s marketers made consumers aware of the JBL brand, it re-engaged them through link ads, which were distributed through the same social channels. These ads con-tained “fun, snackable” content, Spina-to says, and linked back to the Harman

Harman Unwraps Retargeting for the Holidays The parent company of consumer electronics brand JBL relied on sequential messaging and retargeting techniques to guide people down the path to purchase. By Elyse Dupré

Harman considered a browser’s sharing information on social media as being more important than liking it

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website to encourage engagement and purchase. He also says that the com-pany’s marketers tracked key social be-haviors — such as likes, views, shares, posts, or comments — and assigned ranks to each one to determine which pieces of content performed best.

“If somebody shares a piece of con-tent,” Spinato explains, “that’s going to get a higher score than if some- body just likes it.”

Finally, once consumers engaged with Harman’s content, the compa-ny’s marketers tried to convert them by showing them additional link ads and carousel ads — which O’Neal describes as “mini-catalog” social ads that consumers can flip through to see different items and click directly to their product pages.

■ Targeting the right audiencesHarman’s marketers leveraged Cus-tom Audiences on Facebook at each stage of the campaign. This tool al-lowed them to match the customers in their database to Facebook accounts, segment them, and serve them target-ed content. They could also identify web visitors by installing a pixel on JBL’s web page and remarketing to them when they revisited Facebook and Twitter. For the campaign, Har-man’s marketers retargeted web visi-tors and those who viewed or engaged with a video ad.

But Harman’s marketers didn’t just target existing customers. They also reached out to new prospects who resembled its current base through

lookalike modeling — a technique that enables marketers to identify consum-ers who have similar attributes to their existing base (through demographics and shared interests, for instance) in order to target them.

■ Connecting the off- and online worldsIn addition to reaching customers through digital and social channels, Harman targeted customers through the mobile and physical environments. To drive Black Friday visits to its flag- ship New York store, for instance, Harman’s marketers leveraged geo- fencing and sent consumers “free gift with purchase” offers when they came within a certain radius of the store and were on a partnering site within a mobile ad network, like Yelp.

The holiday campaign ran from November to January, with each phase

running for approximately two to three weeks. And although Harman’s marketers had to race against the clock to pull the campaign together, results suggest that it was well worth it.

■ Calculating the resultsThere were 4.7 million views of JBL’s social videos, including 507,000 com-pleted views, during the lead-up to Black Friday. As for the campaign as a whole, all of the ads reached 14 million people and the posts generated 3.3 million engagements.

Harman also saw a 50% increase in direct e-commerce sales year over year. Still, Spinato considers executing the campaign on time while deriving insights his biggest success metric.

“There are times [when] you just need to rush to get something done,” he says. “But if you aren’t getting any learnings, then it’s frankly a waste.”

Harman’s marketers have continued to grow their digital and social capa-bilities. For instance, Spinato says that the company is currently testing a new Twitter capability that’s similar to a Facebook link ad or display ad. He also says that he hopes to create more stra-tegic and customizable content for the next holiday season.

As for marketers looking to replicate Harman’s success, Spinato encourag-es them to target customers not only based on their demographics but also based on their behaviors; then test.

As Spinato summarizes the market-ing effort: “[It’s] saying the right thing to the right person at the right time.” n

Harman’s marketers didn’t just target existing customers. They also reached out to new prospects that resembled its current base through lookalike modeling

Harman found the web was big for making new bf f’s